ELECTION ISSUES

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33963, 2 October 1975, Page 7

ELECTION ISSUES

If the Government took over the organisation of voluntary health services and provided more of their funds, some people say there is a risk that people would stop bothering to help charities and organisations which depend on people’s sympathy and concern for the suffering of those who are less fortunate. The choice is not a simple one between the system as it is now and a system where the State provides

Part two

♦FOCUS*

Last week Focus dealt with several matters which are going to be important issues in the General Election in Noveinber. They are the matters in which political parties and candidates have different opinions, and they are the things people feel are important enough to decide who they should vote for.

The election issues last week mostly dealt with money — how much people should be paid, how much things should cost, how much New Zealand could afford to buy from other countries, and so on.

The issues discussed in Focus this week are more concerned with the sort of lives people live and how well they are looked after, but these questions also involve monev.

In all the political issues discussed in the two Focus articles, and in most of the other matters which will] be important in the election, the thing on which people cannot agree is how to share out the good things of life. The demand for most things exceeds the supply. People have different ideas about how things that are scarce should be distributed to all those who say they want them. Most people want things shared out in the way that will give themselves and their families the best share. During the General Election campaign the political candidates and the parties they belong to will be telling people how they would share things out if they became the Government for the next three years.

Superannuation

When people put aside some of their income each year while they are working to provide them with an income after they retire this is called superannuation. Many schemes have been designed to help people to do this. Some life insurance policies work this way, although many of them pay out instead a fixed amount when a person reaches a particular age. Some firms organise schemes for their staff and pay extra contributions to encourage people to stay in the same job.

Recently the Government decided that everyone should belong to a scheme which would provide them, after they retire, with an income related to the income they earned while they were working. That is, those who had been paid more during their time at work would get more when they retired. Everyone would also continue to get an old age pension as they do now.

Many objections have been made to this scheme. It will take many years before people receive its full benefits because the amount paid out will depend on the amount paid in, and those who retire soon will have paid in very little. As well as that, people who do not work, or work only for a time, like married women who stay at home to look after their families or people who nurse sick relatives for years, will receive very little when they are old because they will not have paid much into the scheme.

As an alternative, some people would like to see the present old age pension increased so that all old people get more money to live on now, rather than have a scheme which will not operate properly for many years. Some people are also worried because under the new State scheme many millions of dollars will be put aside each year to provide the incomes many years hence for those who retire and the way this money is invested will have a considerable effect on many businesses in New Zealand. Young people often do not think very much about providing for themselves when they are old; old age seems to be so far away. But to be old and poor is a dreadful thing to happen to a person. Almost everyone agrees that some provision must be made for everyone’s old age. In fact, New Zealand has had a system of old age pensions for 80 years. But people do not agree about how’ far people should be forced to provide for their old age. Some of the questions which will be argued about during the election are: Should everyone receive the same amount of pension? Should people be encouraged to save and make provision for their old age? Should those who have earned more or worked longer receive bigger incomes when they retire? How far should the State force people to look after themselves?

Health services

How far the Government should interfere in people’s private lives is an important part of the arguments about changes in the health services in New Zealand. At present various forms of health care are provided by the State, by private individuals and organisations. and bv voluntary groups. People

who are seriously ill or who are injured can get the best medical treatment available in the country free. It is paid for out of everyone’s taxes. But people who are less seriously ill may have to wait for a time to get free treatment from a hospital or a specialist doctor. They can still get treatment at once if they are prepared to pay some of the cost themselves. Some people say all medical treatment should be free and should be available immediately for everyone. Others say this would be so expensive that people simply could not afford to pay the taxes to provide it; that many people who have very little wrong with them would flood the system with trivial complaints; and that doctors and hospital staff would have to be directed where to work. If that happened, some doctors would probably leave New Zealand, rather than be made to work in areas where they did not want to live.

everything and it is all paid for from taxes. Many smaller changes might be made in the present system to make it work better or to make it fairer for everyone, but people cannot agree what these changes should be, who should make them, or who should pay for them.

Because almost everyone at some time needs to make use of the health services, and because these involve the most personal and private parts of peoples lives, people have particularly strong feelings about this issue. The privacy of each patient’s relationship with his or her doctor is involved.

Immigration

How many people should New Zealand have? At present it has just over three millions and already some people think this is more than enough, especially in the most crowded parts of the cities where there are sometimes not enough of things like jobs, and houses, and doctors to go round. Others say that New Zealand needs more people so that it will have enough workers to provide the things that everyone wants.

New Zealand’s population increases because more people are born each year than die, and because more people come to live here from other countries than leave New Zealand to live somewhere else.

Because there are not enough jobs for everyone in New Zealand now, various ways have been suggested to control the number of immigrants from other countries. The Government has said that immigrants have to be healthy, reasonably well educated, that their families must not be too big, and so on. The object is to accept people who will contribute to the community as well as take from it. Every -immigrant family adds to the number of houses required, and every immigrant child has to be found a place in school.

Some people want all immigration stopped, at least until there are more jobs available. Others want very stiff entrance requirements so that New Zealand only gets people with special skills, like doctors, who are needed here.

Others, again, think New Zealand, which is a wealthy country compared with many other places, has an obligation to take in as many less fortunate people as possible, even if this means everyone here will be a little worse off. Many New Zealanders feel this country has a special obligation to the peoples of the Pacific Islands, especially the islands which have been governed by New Zealand and where

the population is increasing too rapidly.

But some island people find it hard to adjust to life in New Zealand and to the language here. Because of this, they are admitted for a trial period, or they are admitted only for a specific time and after that they must go home. No one likes to make people prove that they can behave themselves before allowing them to settle here; the alternative might be to have too many people in New Zealand for the country to be able to maintain its standard of living and way of life. And most New Zealanders, deep down, even when they want to help people in other places, believe that their first obligation, and the first obligation of the Government, is to help people who are already part of New Zealand.

State business.

The Government in New Zealand takes part in many business activities. In some of them it is the only “firm” which does a particular thing. In such instances it is a monopoly. The Post Office and the railways are this kind of business. In other circumstances the Govern-

ment conducts part of a business and has a good deal of control over others in the same field. For example, the Government has an airline — National Airways Corporation — and has power to say where other airlines can fly and how much they can charge.

In some other fields, the Government works in competition with private firms. For example, in the last three years the Government has set up a shipping line and a firm for exporting and importing. These two organisations compete with- private firms doing the same thing. Some people think the Government should not be engaged in business that private persons can manage, but should leave private firms to compete with each other so that they keep their prices down and are as efficient as possible. Others say that Government competition is the best way to ensure that private firms give a fair service to the community. Some say that the Government should do everything. This would mean that everyone would work for the Government.

Differences of opinion exist about how far the Government should take part in very many activities, from looking after young children to building houses. The Government has begun to take part in more things than ever before in the last three years. Some people say it has interfered far too much; others say it should be still more active in the lives of citizens.

An outside view

This article appeared in the “New York Times” on September 8, The “New York Times” is tse main morning daily paper published in New York and is generally regarded as one of the most prestigious and influential newspapers in the world.

When New Zealanders go to the polls on November 29 they will in fact vote for parties, not personalities, but whatever party wins will have a Prime Minister who will be a departure from the norm.

The incumbent Prime Minister, the 47-year-old Wallace E. Rowling of the Labour Party who stepped into the office to replace the ebullient, outgoing Norman E. Kirk on Mr Kirk's death last year, is restrained in manner and not given to the rough-and-tumble of political infighting. The Opposition leader. Robert D. Muldoon, 53. is a personally belligerent man who took over the National Party in June of last year from Sir John Marshall, a mild-mannered and gentlemanly sort. Mr Muldoon has been known to reply to his hecklers with his fists.

And so the two parties, in effect, swapped leadership styles, and the personalities of the leaders will set the styles for the election campaign this (.northern) autumn.

The economic issues loom as large as the men. Heavy deficits have replaced a once-large surplus in foreign exchange. Inflation, poor prices for exports and a recession led to a det a luation of 15 per cent for the New Zealand dollar last month.

In the year since Mr Kirk s death, polls of popular opinion have indicated a marked swing away from Labour. The National Party, given 40 per cent of the vote by the polls a year ago, now has 51 per cent, according to a poll taken last month. Labour in the most recent poll w r as given 40 per cent. The Labour Pasrty came to power in the 1972 election — elections are mandatory in New Zealand every three years — after 12 lean years. It was an upset victory, the biggest for Labour since 1935, and JMr Kirk succeeded Sir John Marshall as Prime Minister. Today the Labour Party holds 55 seats in the single-chamber Parliament against 32 for the National Party.

Basically the National Party represents private enterprise and Labour basically advocates state socialism; in practice they are both close to the centre.

Mr Rowling is a former teacher and an economist who prefers quiet tenacity. Many consider him a well-bal-anced politician. He is by nature an administrator, and he will probably conduct a campaign on issues, not personalities. He has not yet set out on the campaign trail.

Mr Muldoon, on the other hand, is already touring the country in personal appearances that have drawn overflow crowds. At a time when television seems the fashionable forum for campaigning, Mr Muldoon prefers to do his battling in person. He has followed a tough law-and-order line; he has been accused as a racist.